Chapter 24: Imperial Star
Three days later, on 15 March, the square airship did indeed land next to the Newton again.
It stood still like an iron box sealed with ancient secret orders.
"Are we going or not?" Jason asked.
It was the last minute, but no one had made up their minds.
After Sky City's messenger had left that day, the team had searched around for the origin of this Sky City, but got no useful information. It was only when they ran into Long Yu again during the task, and that she seemed to know something about Sky City, and after a few questions, Long Yu was willing to reveal some information.
It turned out that Long Yu was from Dragon City. It was for this reason that she knew something about Sky City.
This Sky City was formed during the explosion of Mars, when a large amount of soil and boulders were piled up on the ground in order to build the "Kuafu" system in the Earth's core. On the day that Mars suddenly exploded, the boulders on the ground of Dragon City gradually floated up and gathered into a single mass at a distance of 3KM from the ground, which gradually evolved into a piece of land floating in the sky. At first people were shocked and frightened by this supernatural phenomenon, but over time, as it floated silently in the sky without causing any negative effects, people gradually became accustomed to its existence. But for hundreds of years of study, no one could explain how Sky City overcame gravity and floated in the Sky City. Later, in the Age of Great Famine, it was said that a scientist had developed a technology that defied human decency in order to solve the energy problem, and Dragon City, in conjunction with the other main cities around it, had no choice but to banish this obsessive research team to the Sky City and leave them to their own devices. There were also rumours that the scientists who worked on the technology knew that it could not be used on a large scale, but Dragon City and the other cities forced them to give up the technology in order to solve the energy crisis, which led to the scientists and their entire team going into hiding in Sky City. This was roughly the origin of the people of Sky City, but later, for some reason, there was another legend that Sky City was inhabited by snake men with human heads and snake bodies. Sky City became a forbidden place, and no one dared to go near it. For hundreds of years, it remained suspended in the sky above Dragon City.
"Maybe, the secret Sky City is hiding will have something to do with Dao." Merry said, "Let's go and find out."
Merry wasn't sure what everyone thought, she had a vague feeling in her mind that it wasn't right to put everyone in such an unknown and dangerous situation, but for her, she was really eager to take her chances...
"Okay, we can go check it out." Jason was the first to agree.
"Sky City should be a place well worth looking into, it's something we should go see." Master Wu clearly looked interested.
The others also nodded their heads in agreement.
The Newton followed the airship into Dragon City.
With people coming and going on the grounds of Dragon City, and the inhabitants around the city walls looking relaxed, it was easy to see that Dragon City was a completely different city to Avalon. It could even be said to be the opposite of the darkness and depravity of Avalon.
Seeing Sky City's airship enter the city, the people on the ground looked to the sky with nervousness.
Shortly after flying inn the sky and after another period of ascent, they reached Sky City.
As soon as they disembarked from the airship, the team was shocked by the sight before them -
Although Sky City was above Dragon City, the climate was the opposite of Dragon City. Perhaps because it was floating in mid-air, Sky City was riddled with storms and the ground was littered with metal shards and gravel.
The Newton rested on a large platform at the edge of Sky City, a semi-subterranean passage winding for hundreds of meters connecting the platform to the buildings on the far side.
The platform was supposed to be used for mooring airships, but at the moment, there were only three identical square airships and the Newton on it, and the whole platform appeared to be empty. The buildings on the far side of the platform were hidden from view by the raging sand, with their exact shape not clear but appeared to be semi-subterranean, and their faint outline of the surface looked like the tip of an iceberg.
The team followed the messenger through the long passage to buildings that were originally far apart, about two or three kilometers from the platform, with no electronic devices in sight along the way. In today's technologically advanced world, even the wilderness outside Dragon City was full of intelligent robots and electronic displays, but this place was so old-fashioned and archaic that it was as if a palace had been removed from a history book and placed here.
Every few meters there were skylights in the passage, where metal fragments and gravel were battered by the wind, as if it were pouring rain.
The style of the buildings was completely different from the modern world, with wide, thick stone steps, rough and cold, and a heavy stone door every few metres in the passage, with ancient inscriptions engraved on the stone walls, the whole interior of the buildings looked like an ancient palace.
The messenger led the team through one of the stone doors, and the space behind it was much larger than expected, with the same ancient inscriptions engraved on the huge stone pillars on both sides, and the walls of the hall inlaid with dim yellow lights, giving the cold stone palace some warmth.
There was a young man standing in the middle of the hall, his dress was much more normal compared to those messengers, a white robe, and although it was a simple white robe, it was hard to hide its nobility, was this young man the monarch of Sky City?
"Welcome everyone to the Imperial Star as our guest." The young man spoke with enthusiasm, his bright voice echoing through the hall.
"Hi, my name is Merry," Merry greeted as she stepped forward.
"Hi, everyone, I'm Chong Ming and I'm responsible for greeting everyone." The young man surveyed the room, the smile under his eyes growing even stronger.
It was hard to imagine that such a depressing stone castle was inhabited by such a bright young man.
Merry introduced him to the members of her team, and the young man, who called himself Chong Ming, greeted them one by one with a smile.
"Did you just say that this place is called the Imperial Star?" asked Jason.
"Ah, yes, that's the name our clan... our clan gave Sky City." It could tell from Chong Ming that he was being careful with his wording, trying to choose words that weren't so unfamiliar to explain the strange place of Sky City to everyone.
"'Ain't nobody else here?" Merry asked.
"Yes, the rest of the clan lives in the underground city behind the main hall, it's just me and my sister here, and a few ministers." Chong Ming said.
The word "Ministers ..." felt very strange.
"Ah yes, the uncles who assist my sister in running the Imperial Star, friends of my father's." Chong Ming explained, "Let me show you around."
"Wait, may I ask if it were you who invited us to Sky City?"
"Yes, it was me and my sister who decided to invite you here."
"With all due respect, may I ask the reason you wanted to invite us here?" Merry asked.
"Imperial Star has not had any guests for a long time, we have no other purpose, Imperial Star has been isolated from the world for too long and is now facing some technical problems. You have won in the Attic World, I guess you must have a lot of modern technology, so we would like to ask for your help. Of course, if you are willing to... If you can solve the problem of the Imperial Star, there will be many thanks then for sure, and if you are not willing to, then we can also send you back to the ground, before that, I would like to ask you all to stay and see the place." Chong Ming was very sincere in his words.
Everyone decided to stay and have a look first.
The palace was semi-subterranean and it was not until reaching the end of the palace corridor could it see the underground city behind the palace, which was the size of a small village. Some people could be seen working in it. The number of people living in the underground city was not large, probably in the thousands. When they saw Chong Ming's figure appear at the end of the corridor, the people of the underground city knelt down and worshipped.
Following Chong Ming around the palace, which was much larger than expected, behind each stone door were much the same rooms, all grandly decorated, some like meeting rooms, others like banqueting rooms, and some bedrooms.
Chong Ming led the team through all the rooms, large and small, and there seemed to be many more hidden in the deepest part of the corridor, but Chong Ming said politely, "That's all for today, I'll take you to rest first."
He led the team into a guest room they had been in earlier, which was very large, with a small living room after entering, and then divided into many more rooms.
The rooms were surprisingly comfortable inside, although underground, there were no signs of dampness or mould, and despite their antiquity and backwardness, there were still traces of modern technology everywhere, such as the dimly coloured light strips that automatically lit up the walls, or the household items that were full of signs of modern technology.
After a month of waiting outside Dragon City, everyone was ready for a good night's sleep.